Terminal Opens at Detroit Airport

Published 8:00 pm, Sunday, February 24, 2002

Associated Press Writer

Opening day wasn't trouble-free for a new terminal that replaces a cramped older facility at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, but travelers still appreciated the change.

"It looks like Tomorrowland at Disneyland!" Carol Solomon of Dimondale said of Northwest Airlines' $1.2 billion Midfield Terminal, which opened Sunday. She was one of the first passengers to arrive on the nearly mile-long Concourse A, which features a ceiling arching 37 feet overhead.

Concourses in the old Davey terminal had ceilings as low as 10 feet.

"There's some really nice details that I appreciate as an architect," Melissa Dittmer said Monday. "They definitely spent extra money to have tiles in and around the bathrooms, and to have quality leather, designer chairs."

Dittmer said she has flown in and out of Detroit Metro for years. "The old terminal was an embarrassment," she said.

Northwest accounts for nearly 80 percent of the passenger traffic at Detroit Metro, the nation's sixth-busiest airport. It leases and occupies almost all of the new terminal, which replaces one built 36 years ago when Metro handled one-tenth as many passengers as it did last year.

Sunday's opening day was marked by problems.

Concourse A's elevated passenger trams were briefly shut down and evacuated after smoke from a nearby restaurant triggered a fire alarm, Northwest spokeswoman Mary Beth Schubert said. Backups occurred in parts of the 10-story parking garage after some people mistakenly parked in traffic lanes.

"We also had two toilets that weren't working," said Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara grumbled.

A software problem left arriving passengers unable to find their bags at the luggage claim area, said Bob Ball, head of Northwest's ground operations. Also, an escalator had to be repaired, and none of the pay phones worked in the ticketing area.

Northwest, which is based outside Minneapolis but uses Detroit as its largest U.S. hub, has been hurt by the old Davey terminal's cramped, inconvenient layout as well as fallout from a 1999 snowstorm that left passengers stuck in airplanes for up to eight hours.

The terminal's capacity of 30 million annual Northwest and Airlink commuter service passengers won't be fully tested for years, in part because the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks cut into the major airlines' business.

The attacks also prompted some last-minute security changes that pushed back the new terminal's opening date from late December. The number of security checkpoints was expanded from 16 to 21 and will go up to 23 when an adjoining hotel opens later this year.